More Investigation on Clinton Emails

A former director of the Justice Department’s office of public affairs said Friday that FBI Director James Comey’s letter to Congress announcing the review of more evidence in the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server constituted “such an inappropriate disclosure.”

Matthew Miller, who served at the Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder, blasted Comey’s move in a 14-post spree on Twitter Friday afternoon, ripping the FBI director for his practices throughout the entire Clinton investigation. Miller said Comey “flagrantly violated DOJ rules” by holding a press conference in July to announce that he was recommending against charges for the former secretary of state, a decision the FBI director said at the time that he made in the interest of transparency.

“But today’s disclosure might be worst abuse yet,” Miller tweeted, adding that in his experience, the Justice Department “goes out of its way to avoid publicly discussing investigations” when elections are close.

Miller said those precautions are not just limited to public statements, writing that the department often avoids sending subpoenas or taking other steps that might become public until an election is over.

The Justice Department does that, he said, “because voters have no way to interpret FBI/DOJ activity in a neutral way.” Miller wrote that the new information being reviewed by the FBI “might be totally benign & not even involve Clinton. “But no way for press or voters to know that. Easy for opponent to make hay over.”

“Which takes us back to the original rule: you don’t comment on ongoing investigations,” he added. “Then multiply that times ten close to an election.

Comey’s behavior has been especially suspect, Miller wrote, because the FBI has chosen not to comment on or even confirm the existence of other campaign-related investigations. He said the bureau is “undoubtedly” investigating any connection between Russian hacking into the email accounts of powerful U.S. political figures and the Trump campaign, but has rightly refused to publicly confirm whether or not an investigation is underway.

“Comey refused to even tell Congress if FBI was investigating Trump camp for Russia hack, but regular updates on Clinton are apparently A-ok,” Miller wrote, adding in the final post from his Twitter flurry that “they shouldn’t be commenting on investigations! But that should apply to all. Instead Clinton consistently treated differently/worse.”